Joe.Biden@Clueless.com: 'Do you know the website number?'
Vice President Joe Biden joined an elite group this morning, in the company of President Bush and the former Alaskan senator, Ted Stevens.
Wait, did we say "elite?" We mean risible.
While discussing Recovery.gov, the taxpayer's stimulus guide The Ticket wrote about this morning, on the CBS Early Show today, Biden was asked what the address for the website was.
His clueless response undoubtedly put a smile on the faces of tech savvy viewers.
"You know, I'm embarrassed," Biden said. Turning to someone off screen, he asked, "Do you know the website number?"
Bloggers and Twitter users scoffed at the phrase "website number" over the course of the day. Such a misnomer wouldn't be a shock coming from most 66-year-olds, but the Obama administration has emitted an air of tech savvy up until now. "Website number" sounds like something we'd hear from Sen. John McCain.
Of course, it's not the first well documented tech flub by a politician. Bush's "Internets," Al Gore's purported claim of starting the Internet and Stevens' comparison of the Internet to a "series of tubes" have all become Web memes -- often referenced and commonly mocked.
Biden said he was embarrassed about not knowing the address. Well, he may soon find another reason to blush about that interview.
Next time, they should ask if he Twitters. And he'll say, no he laughs out loud.
(UPDATE: Meanwhile, Glenn Reynolds writes that Biden's ignorance is a small one. But points out this is the guy in charge of monitoring the stimulus spending. And speculates, what if, say, Sarah Palin had made such a gaffe on nationwide TV. Might we have heard more about it today? Do you think?)
-- Mark Milian
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"Next time, they should ask him if he Twitters."
Joe's response: "Not since I cut back on the fiber."
Posted by: tbrosz | February 25, 2009 at 09:07 PM
Al Gore played a critical role in turning ARPANET into the Internet. You reveal your ignorance of the history of the Internet by listing Al Gore among politicians who have made tech-related flubs, and that's far less forgivable than Biden's error given that you are reporting for the LAT. Go find the original interview with Wolf Blitzer that inspired the criticism of Gore if you want to use the example. The phrase Gore used is "initiative in creating," not "start" or "invent" or anything else.
Posted by: Cristóbal Palmer | February 26, 2009 at 06:56 AM
Joe Biden is a Real Man of Genius.
Posted by: OSweet | February 26, 2009 at 08:07 AM
""Website number" sounds like something we'd hear from Sen. John McCain."
Since the data on Sen McCain's lack of knowledge concerning the Internet, et al, is legendary in the original sense of the word, could you explain your deduction and/or chain of reason?
Cheers
Posted by: J.M. Heinrichs | February 26, 2009 at 03:50 PM
Actually, to be quite precise; Joe Biden didn't misspeak. The Website number for www.recovery.org is 64.95.172.77. In networking, computers locate each other by the "website number" also known as the I. P. address. Since we humans remember names better than numbers we are told by the DNS servers the aliased address, www.some_website.com. However, when you tell your PC to go to a website, your PC looks for the I.P. address locally, if not found it then looks to DNS server and that server doesn't want words - it wants the website number. The author of this article owe sMr. Biden an apology for implying he was not tech savvy. The author, himself, is not tech savvy.
Posted by: China Nolan | February 27, 2009 at 06:53 AM
his mess ups are cute!
I love Joe Biden :D
Posted by: maria | February 27, 2009 at 07:43 AM
Too bad the earlier attempt to prove Biden correct used the wrong website name - it's not recovery.org, it's recovery.gov. All in all, not very SAVVY on the part of China Nolan.
I would add "I believe he or she owes us an apology!" but it wouldn't sound any less dumb coming from me than it did from them, so I believe I will eschew. ;-)
Posted by: CRZ | February 28, 2009 at 05:46 PM
"I wonder who's taking Jindal's shift at the 7-11"
Is this cute that the VP of the USA shows just what a racist he is--Is this cute--stupid people--pay attention!
Posted by: Anne Gange | March 02, 2009 at 08:50 AM